This week, two security officers employed by contractor Security Industry Specialists (SIS) and assigned to Amazon’s tech campus in Seattle were removed from their work schedules following a May Day press conference in which the officers spoke out against unfair working conditions.

Immediately following on May 2, each officer was removed from their work schedule.

Officers Elmi and Desta, along with labor, community, tech and religious supporters, formed a delegation to confront SIS at their offices on Wednesday May 3, requesting a meeting with SIS CFO Tom Seltz, and delivering a letter signed by a coalition of supporters demanding the workers get their hours back and an end to what the officers believe is retaliation. Read letter here. If your local or national organization, mosque, church or synagogue would like to sign on to letter, contact us at sam.finkelstein@seiu.org.

While CFO Seltz refused to meet with his workers, the delegation was partially successful in that Officer Desta was returned to the schedule at 2 days per week. Officer Desta was hired to work full time and believes she is being discriminated against for joining together with her co-workers to demand better working conditions.

Seattle City Council-member Kshama Sawant has called for an investigation into SIS in a letter to the Office of Labor Standards. Noting that “SIS has become a chronic violator of workers’ rights,” Sawant calls on the OLS to investigate SIS’s retaliation against workers and adherence to labor standards, as well as to do what it can “to defend the rights of Elmi and Desta.”